COVID-19 Update

World

• New Cases:   831,760 (⬆︎ .94%)
• New Deaths:    14,907 (⬆︎ .78%)

USA

• New Cases:   306,449 (⬆︎ 1.38%)  🏆 NEW RECORD!!
• New Deaths:      3,969 (⬆︎ 1.06%)

To date (since Mar 3, 2020) we've averaged 1,208 dead Americans per day.

The trends in our overall averages are looking pretty bad.

The reporting on COVID-19 Cases and Deaths varies from place to place. I settled on Worldometer because the presentation is a little simpler and the Johns-Hopkins site was a little harder to navigate.

So anyway, nobody's arguing about the fact that we went over 300,000 new cases for the day yesterday.

And nothing points up the total shittiness of Qult45 than the simple fact that they're so busy trying to kill American democracy that they're paying no attention at all to the problem of COVID-19 killing 1 American every 72 seconds.

WaPo:

U.S. surpasses 300,000 daily coronavirus cases, the second alarming record this week

The United States on Friday surpassed 300,000 daily coronavirus cases, the second alarming record this week. The number, which roughly equates to the population of St. Louis, Pittsburgh or Cincinnati, comes about two months after the country reported 100,000 coronavirus cases a day for the first time, and one day after more than 4,000 people died from the virus, also a record.

NYT: (pay wall)

Biden Plans Coronavirus Vaccination Blitz After Inauguration

The incoming Biden administration plans to set up federally run mass vaccination sites and to release all government-held vials, rather than hold some back for second doses.

In a sharp break with the Trump administration, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. intends to release nearly all available doses of the coronavirus vaccine soon after he is inaugurated, rather than hold back millions of vials to guarantee second doses will be available.

The decision is part of an aggressive effort to “to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible,” the Biden transition team said on Friday. The vaccination plan, to be formally unveiled next week, also will include federally run vaccination sites in places like high school gyms and sports stadiums, and mobile units to reach high-risk populations.

The president-elect has vowed to get “at least 100 million Covid vaccine shots into the arms of the American people” during his first 100 days in office.

The decision to release the vast majority of vaccine doses set off a sharp debate among public health experts. The two vaccines that have received emergency approval each require two doses, and the Trump administration has so far been holding back about half of its supply to ensure that booster doses will be available for those already inoculated.

The announcement by the incoming Biden administration sets the clearest benchmark yet for front-loading shots, then distributing them as they become available. Officials at Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine program, had noted that doses would stop being sequestered after the first few weeks of rollout. Both the health secretary, Alex M. Azar II, and Warp Speed officials were critical of the president-elect’s decision on Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration — whose advice Mr. Biden has pledged to follow — has spoken out strongly against changing the dosing schedule, as some other countries have opted to do, calling such a move “premature and not rooted solidly in the available evidence.” Some public health experts fear that second doses would be delayed by the decision.

But others called it a smart measure and said it was imperative to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible — so long as the second doses are not delayed. The Biden team said it was confident that the supply would be enough, and that Mr. Biden would invoke the Defense Production Act if necessary to bolster the supply of second doses.

“The president-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible,” said T.J. Ducklo, a spokesman for the Biden transition team.

The announcement that Mr. Biden intends to free up extra doses coincided with a letter from eight Democratic governors — including Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, both of whom have clashed with President Trump — imploring the current administration to release all available doses to the states as soon as possible.